[chillyjim]

It depends on what sun you are looking for CHKP runs on both Sun SPARC and Opteron based servers.

The V20/V40 Opteron servers are sold as a fully Check Point supported bundle so you know all of the hardware works. (Note, last I checked QoS/FloodGate isn't supported on Opteron). These servers run SPLAT.

You need to be a little more careful with the SPARC based systems to make sure you are using supported interfaces. SPARC runs under Solaris.

Nokia, like the V20/40 are supported hardware bundles, but the support is from Nokia not CHKP.

Personally I like the Sun solutions more than the Nokia, but I am very Linux/Solaris fluent. If you are not Nokia is a better choice than the Solaris/SPARC, Opteron/SPLAT has a pretty good web interface.

From a pure technical standpoint, you get more bang-for-the-buck with the V20/40 over the equivalent Nokia.

-jlh